


a gift from my long travels

by blanchtt



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, F/F, season five
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 01:42:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11475954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blanchtt/pseuds/blanchtt
Summary: The drive down the coast is everything everyone said it would be. Cosima points out landmarks and beaches, stops the car where the other tourists stop, and they step out, grab a breath of fresh air, stretch their legs, and take pictures.





	a gift from my long travels

**Author's Note:**

> Gene? Nah. Cosima said Jean.

 

 

 

 

 

The drive down the coast is everything everyone said it would be. Cosima points out landmarks and beaches, stops the car where the other tourists stop, and they step out, grab a breath of fresh air, stretch their legs, and take pictures.

 

The time spent driving is theirs alone, and Delphine enjoys it more than she ever imagined she could. All too soon they’re driving into Morro Bay, past clusters of houses and restaurants, to the waterfront where they pull into a parking lot, and Cosima stops the car, killing the engine with a loud breath.

 

“So, long story short,” Cosima finishes, wrapping up the extensive details of her parents’ research as she unbuckles her seatbelt. “They’re studying sea otters.”

 

“I see.”

 

She’s met parents before, which isn’t something that particularly scares her. Cosima practically pops out of her seat, heads to the trunk to get her backpack and laptop, and Delphine opens her own door, gets out of her seat, and stands. She takes a moment to stretch, looking around at the ocean, the rock, the gulls – it’s so pretty that she can understand why Cosima’s parents have chosen this place to stay in out of every other beautiful place in California that she’s seen – and turns at the sound of Cosima definitively slamming the trunk shut.

 

They walk through the parking lot together, past a few other cars, and make their way down a small ramp and onto a bobbing dock, which she takes a few steps to become accustomed to. Cosima mirrors her silence now, but Delphine feels a hand reach for hers, fingertips brushing against her own, and she smiles, twines her fingers with Cosima’s as Cosima leads the way.

 

She can’t hazard a guess at which home is Cosima’s parents’ before they reach it, but once they do it does seem like the sort of place Cosima would call home – small but well-kept, a wind chime hanging from above the door, two kayaks tied up next to it and bobbing in the water. Cosima takes the step off the dock onto what can only be called the porch, hand still in hers to guide her, and Delphine follows, watches Cosima reach out and knock at the door.

 

After everything, theoretically this should be easy enough. But Delphine squeezes at the hand in hers, wonders just how well this encounter will go over with Cosima's parents given her and Cosima’s somewhat unfavorable start, even with everything having since smoothed out.

 

But Cosima, barely needing to look at her to know what worries are beginning to bog her down, turns her head, looks up at her with a smile, and squeezes back.

 

“Don’t worry,” Cosima says with such certainty that Delphine can't help but start to believe her. “They’ll love you, just like I do.”

 

They door opens and they’re ushered in, the tiny porch too small to make introductions on, and as they make their way inside Cosima lets go of her hand. Delphine watches Cosima practically throw herself into a hug with one woman before mirroring the gesture with another.

 

She can’t help but think of that night, of the realization that neither of the women currently fawning over Cosima have any idea how closely Cosima has brushed death, nor how many times, and Delphine feels a rush of relief and happiness at the promise she and Cosima had made to themselves, to each other, and to others. No more secrets.

 

Delphine watches Cosima make her way back to her side, beaming, before taking her hand again and facing her parents.  

 

“Mom. Mama,” Cosima announces. “This is Delphine.” She pauses there, clears her throat around a cough that grows more and more rare, and adds, “I have so much to tell you.”

 

 

-

 

 

It takes all night to tell, interrupted only by dinner which is filled with wonderfully benign questions from Cosima's mothers.

 

_(Lille, France. Thirty-one in December. Two sisters, middle child. Smoker.)_

 

They sit across from Dr. and Dr. Niehaus in the tiny living room – _Sally and Jean, please_ , as Cosima had insisted she call them, though formality is a habit she has a difficult time breaking with – the two of them on the couch and Cosima’s parents pulling up various seats.

 

She can imagine their initial distrust of her, and for the first half-hour Delphine is distinctly aware of sitting with her back ramrod-straight, Cosima’s hand very nearly clenched in her own, and smiling nervously. It’s impossible not to.

 

But as Cosima recounts her and her sisters’ various misadventures, Delphine finds herself able not to relax but at least to let go of most of her tension, because Cosima speaks about her, too, and what she's done, and when it comes to that part Delphine defers to her, waves away the praise she's uncertain she deserves with a brush of her hand. She helped with the science, there's no doubt about that. But it is certainly not her story to tell, at last not to this audience, and as Cosima goes on, Delphine wonders with a pang what her own parents must think of her silence over the last year and a half.

 

The truth creates, of course, a great deal of questions, which Cosima and her parents delve into. And unsurprisingly, despite the flight and the drive, Cosima is animated, discussing the science with her mothers – the artificial womb, the gene therapy, the fountain of youth. As fascinated as she too is by the science, Delphine puts aside the cup of coffee Sally had made for her earlier, nearly empty, and stifles a yawn behind a carefully-placed hand.

 

But there’s no fighting jetlag, and it’s either her drooping posture or her inability to keep her eyes open despite the coffee that gives her away as it gets later and later, leaning more and more heavily against Cosima’s shoulder, and again Sally is the one to notice and then stand, to touch her wife’s shoulder and ask aloud with a hint of a smile if _maybe the girls would like to sleep now, Jean_.

 

 

-

 

 

The couch is tiny and takes up almost the entirety of the tiny living room once it’s pulled out, but it’s enough.

 

There is still more to discuss in the morning. It won’t be that easy, to have it all told and settled in one night, and Delphine doesn’t think it should be. But for now, with pillows and blankets and the lights flicked off, left alone, she settles onto her side of the bed, senses as much as hears Cosima settle in the darkness next to her, and opens her arms, feels Cosima find her way into them, settling with her head tucked just under her chin, lips brushing against her neck in a kiss.

 

"We should get breakfast in town tomorrow morning. Just you and me," Cosima offers, and exhausted and pleased, Delphine begins to run a palm slowly up and down Cosima's back, as soothing for her as it must be for Cosima, because Cosima adds, "There's a huge chess board in the park we can visit after," words slow and voice just a shade lower.

 

It is almost impossible that they are here, the two of them, together, not unscarred, but at least unhurt. It puts things into perspective - that she can get up when she pleases now, and go out to breakfast with her girlfriend, and they will no doubt sit side-by-side in a booth and then take silly pictures playing chess - and Delphine buries her face against Cosima's temple happily, and murmurs truthfully, "I would like that very much."

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
